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I've always been a reader since I was younger. I love books. Besides reading, I love writing stories. Eventually I became I slinger of books in the form of a librarian as well (formerly public, currently academic). But 2016 was a different year for me. I decided to really take a look at what I was reading and do a bit more observing about my reading habits. Previously, I had considered myself a lover of fiction and a promoter of the Young Adult (YA). So after I set a personal goal on Goodreads.com to read 20 books in 2016, I figured it could be a fun opportunity to see just how true to those words I actually am. Thus, I present to you my 2016 reading year in review!

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12 Library Books versus 12 Books I Own

And they say that libraries are going obsolete. Only if you don't use them! While there are far many more services that libraries offer besides books, books are my purpose for this box. I was half and half on this one. I rented 12 books from the library this year while I owned the other 12, either on my shelf or on my Kindle.

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Epitaphs for the Living: Words and Images in the Time of AIDS by Billy Howard & Lonnie D. Kliever

This book was completely out of the blue for me for several reasons. 1. It is a photography book. I have never read a photography book before. 2. I found out about it while reading a story in the Chronicle for Higher Education. It was a complete fluke that I found the library I work in had a copy on the shelves. It was a quick read, but insanely heartbreaking. The AIDS epidemic happened when I was very young and I didn't understand what any of it meant. I quickly realized that many of the people (if not all) who had written such beautiful, touching words to go with their portraits were no longer with us, some gone for nearly 30 years. And the biggest thing that I took from this book? There are still many of us who haven't learned a damn thing, whether about sexuality, safety, or above all else, what it really means to live and love.

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...and so I read on. I am currently reading The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey by Rinker Buck. I was hoping to have this book finished to round out the year with a solid 25 books, but it just wasn't meant to be. So it'll most likely be book number 1 for next year. But until my 2017 list comes out, best of luck and love in the new year and happy reading!

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7 Young Adult versus 17 Other Genres

After breaking down everything I read this year, I found out I wasn't as big of a YA reader as I thought. Out of the total 24 books I read, only 7 of them were of the Young Adult genre. It's 29% of what I read, but I thought my counts would be much closer to 50%. Maybe I'm growing away from it. I hope not. I love YA. I specialized in teen services with my masters. Plus I write YA. Or, quite possibly, I looking a little too much into this.

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5 Kindle/e-Books versus 19 Print Books

"Print is dead. Everything is online nowadays." Oh really? I work on a computer all day long, do social media and games on my laptop and iPhone, and anything else that technology throws at me. Do you think that means I want to use a Kindle or an iPad to read my books too? Well, I honestly have no opinion either way. There's something about the feel of the pages in your fingers and being able to look at your collection of books upon your shelves. Then there's the joy and ease of dimming your e-Reader screen so you can read in the dark without disturbing your sleeping husband in bed. Either way, this was my break down this year.

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14 Fiction versus 10 Non-Fiction

I'm usually a reader of fiction, but this year I decided to give some non-fiction a try to see what I was missing. A lot of the time I associated non-fiction with textbooks and information for work and school, so after I graduated with my MLIS, I was so excited to be able to read for pleasure again. I can say that I am excited now to throw some non-fiction into the mix since there are some excellent non-fiction books about topics that interest me that are outside of my academic work. Long story short, I will be reading more non-fiction in the future and it will be delightfully glorious.

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Understanding Crohn Disease and Ulcerative Colitis by Jon Zonderman at 146 pages

This is a reference book I came across at work that I thought I would take a look at to see if I could get a firm understanding of my disease. It gave me a decent, basic explanation of everything I needed to know and was a quick read. I think my only concern with it was that it was published in 2000, so some of the research was out of date completely or needed to be updated.

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Believarexic by JJ Johnson at 464 pages

This book came very close to being on my Favorite Book of the Year list. Yes, it was 464 pages, but don't let that fool you into thinking that it was long, hard to read, and arduous. It was greatly enjoyable and a learning experience. The main character is learning to deal with her eating disorder by going through the stages of a program at a rehabilitation hospital for teenagers. The book is divided into each stage of the program and each section is formatted differently. The first stage of the book is very fragmented, giving out short statements or thoughts of action (think of something like incomplete tweets on Twitter). The second state turns into actual completed sentences (they begin to look more like well thought out Facebook statuses). The third stage turns into well written, complete paragraphs from the main character. It is fantastically done and it made me cheer. A great read for anyone who loves stories of triumph and YA.

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I can't say enough how awesome Goodreads is for keeping track of what you're reading and your progress. I used the title page of each book on the website to get a full page count. So once I tallied up the pages listed for all 24 books, I came back with 7,404 pages. Holy Moses! Truth is I read more than 7,500 because there were two books I started and had to give up because I couldn't get into them after a certain amount of pages. One of them I was in at least 100 pages and I realized I had no feelings or cares for any of the characters or the subject matter, so I left it behind. Hey, it happens when it comes to reading for pleasure and there's no crime in doing so. But still, I can't help but feel accomplished with the page amount. I kind of want to set a goal of 10,000 pages for 2017, but I think that might be a bit too ambitious. So instead I'm saying more than what I came up with this year. It's realistic and it aims to be better than where I previously ended up.

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Lit Up by David Denby

I was excited for this book as it seemed to have an inspiring tagline, but in the end, it was kind of a let down. How do you truly inspire a number of students from a number of different positions in life in a number of different ways? There is no one answer. Every student is unique, just as the materials they read tend to be (if they choose to read, that is). In the end, this book seemed to repeat a number of ideas that I had heard in academics and education before. Not just the personal trials of each student, but the support teachers get from the administration of their institution. In the end, I felt as if this book was a big, "Oh captain, my captain," which is good. However, it doesn't exactly inspire when you've heard it repeated so many times with nothing new to add.

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Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz

A few of my fellow readers and YA enthusiasts said I really need to check out Aristotle and Dante. I had to read Aristotle and Dante. It was a crime that I hadn't yet experienced Aristotle and Dante. So I picked up Aristotle and Dante. And...meh. Maybe it was the hype. The story was lovely. I loved the bond between the two boys. I loved their personalities. It had nothing to do with it being an LGBTQ book. I've been supporting LGBTQ since high school. I think it was just so over-hyped that by the time I sat down and read it, all of the joy of it was taken away from me. I think of it like that guy who filmed himself years ago spoiling Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince for everyone that was waiting in line at midnight for the release. There were so many broken-hearted fans and a number of them who said, "Well, what's the point now?" Maybe I'm not so much to that extent, but I think it was a bit of that for me. Meh. Sorry fans.

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The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

I finished this book at 11:58 pm on New Year's Eve. It was the last book I read in 2016 and one of the most beautiful! It broke my heart and gave me hope. The best way I can describe it is that it is a surreal historical fiction fantasy thriller (at least in my opinion). Oprah is noted on the back cover, stating that her heart was in her throat and it made her emotional.  I completely agree! And after the political atmosphere of 2016, I feel that some need to read this book in order to remember what our country once stood for. There is good and there is bad. But for Cora, the main character, despite the horrible hand she is dealt in life, she never stops striving towards the light and freedom. And it is the most inspiring.

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Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things by Jenny Lawson

This is the first book that I read this year and it has really stuck with me. For those who are new to me, I have suffered from crohn's disease for over 10 years. As a result, I have had issues with depression due to my health, which has also led to issues with anxiety. I take medication and see a counselor for all of the above and have never had a problem talking about it because my thinking is 1. What is there to be ashamed of? This is an honest part of my life. nd 2. What if my experiences can help someone else with theirs? This seemed to be Jenny "The Bloggess" Lawson's thinking when she wrote this book. I've been a fan of her website for a while, and her first book Let's Pretend This Never Happened has been a favorite for a few years. With this book, however, she really opened up about her own mental health struggles. To say that it hit home with me is an understatement. We have more than a little bit in common, even down to being misdiagnosed with other issues when it turned out to be a faulty gall bladder that needed to be removed. In the end, I laughed hard, cried a little, then I gave it to my husband with the statement, "This will help explain everything." In the end, it really hit home for him as well. So to the great Bloggess, mother of all creatures, taxidermy and otherwise, I say thank you. Because of you, a number of us are able to relate and speak up about our battles.

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Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari

People who know me can say that I have been a fan of Aziz Ansari for a few years now, even to the point that I refer to him as my second TV husband (first TV husband is Seth MacFarlane for those who are curious). His stand up is honest and on point, and his role as Tom on Parks & Recreation was every bit of adorable. So when I heard that he wrote a book, I was expecting another celebrity memoir slash collection of essays. I was greatly surprised upon turning the first few pages that Ansari did some major academic work for this book, studying not just how he himself dealt with romance in the United States, but a number of all ages deal with romance around the world! He worked with sociologists to research the similarities and differences of courtship in our age of technology and communication, while inserting his own experiences and humor into the work. Seriously, the introduction to the book reads like an abstract and summary to a paper in an academic journal. Hats off to you Mr. Ansari! You got rave reviews for this book (not just from me) and you've greatly earned it! I was greatly impressed!

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Here is the list of books I read in 2016 in the order of completion.

1. Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things by Jenny Lawson
2. Empire of Sin: A Story of Sex, Jazz, Murder, and the Battle for Modern New Orleans by Gary Krist
3. Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir by Jenny Lawson
4. Wonder by RJ Palacio
5. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
6. Believarexic by JJ Johnson
7. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz
8. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hooseini
9. Lit Up: One Reporter. Three Schools. Twenty-four Books That Can Change Lives. by David Denby
10. Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
11. Titans by Victoria Scott
12. Understanding Crohn Disease and Ulcerative Colitis by Jon Zonderman
13. Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit by Barry Estabrook
14. Epitaphs for the Living: Words and Images in the Time of AIDS by Billy Howard & Lonnie D. Kliever
15. Walt Disney: An American Original by Bob Thomas
16. The Girls by Emma Cline
17. Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari
18. This Book is Overdue!:  How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All by Marilyn Johnson
19. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Parts One and Two by JK Rowling, John Tiffany, & Jack Thorne
20. Death and the Penguin by Andrev Kukkov
21. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
22. The Beast Within: A Tale of Beauty's Prince by Serena Valentino
23. Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan
24. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead